Bioshock Rapture's Rapture
by Echofalls
Summary: 1992. Rapture is all but crumbling to ruins. But life still lingers there. Then young girls start to vanish again and four survivors of a freak plane accident will discover how much of a hell Rapture truly is.
1. Chapter 1: Hell's welcome

BIOSHOCK:

'Oww...' the room shook as water started to filter in. Bags, life jackets and papers floated past several disorientated passangers. Carlos Siera was awake immediatly, it took him a few seconds to realize why he was waste deep in water, and by then three other people had come to, one man and two women. 'What happened?' the stewardess wondered.  
'Well, obviously the plane crashed and is now sinking.' the male snorted. 'Now let's get out of here before we get dragged down with it.'  
'What about the other people?' Carlos asked.  
'They're dead by the looks of it.'  
'Our stuff?'  
'No time!' the stewardess said as she opened an emergency door and let them out.

'Ugh...I'm supposed to be in a five star hotel right now...Not treading water in the middle of the Atlantic!' the female passenger whined as they paddled to stay afloat amongst the sinking wreckage. 'I mean, what the hell did we crash into?!'  
'What's your name?' the man asked.  
'Sheva.' she replied. 'you?'  
'Alex.' he said. 'Okay Sheva, I'm going to say this slowly. Shut! Up!'  
'People!' Carlos ordered. 'I think we hit that.' Trying his best to stay afloat he raised a hand and pointed at the ruined lighthouse. 'Ah! Solid ground!' Sheva gasped and they started to swim towards it.

'Some freaky lighthouse...' Carlos whispered as they crept down the stairs, shuddering in their drenched clothing. 'Not really what you expect to find in the middle of the Atlantic is it?' Sheva asked. 'And this isn't really what you expect to find in a lighthouse...' she added as they found the bathysphere. 'Ooo...I'm chlostrophobic...' Alex shuddered and they walked in. On curiosity, the stewardess pulled the lever. Thus began their descent into the underwater hell...

'What is this place...?' the stewardess, Melissa wondered as they bathysphere bubbled to the surface and the door opened. The area beyond revealed what must once have been a mosaic tiled room. It was now dark and dirty, blood splattered on the loose tiles. Cautiously they emerged from the bathysphere and walked around. 'Can you feel that?' Sheva wondered.  
'What?' Carlos asked.  
'I feel like I'm being watched...' she replied with a shiver. Alex looked up at some of the graffiti, the writing was unsteady and shaky "We work together for The Family" 'Please say that's not blood on my shoes.' Sheva said as she stepped through a dark puddle.

'Which way now?' Carlos asked as he checked a mould covered map. 'So we're here. In....Rapture?' he wondered. Rapture. The word echoed in Melissa's mind, but she couldn't think why. 'So where do we go from here?' Alex asked before there came rapid footsteps, everyone looked around what they saw next was a blur of red light and a cracking sound as the glass ceiling began to splinter. 'Run!' Carlos ordered and they split into three different corridors before the water started pouring in and rushed after them.

Alex groaned as he shoved the bulkhead door closed and spun the wheel to lock it in place. 'Great...Soaked through twice in one day...' he sighed. Alex walked along the hallway beyond and stopped to peek out a window, he could see the true extent of the underwater city. 'What a wreck..' he said before moving on.

Sheva and Carlos shoved the bulkhead door shut and the last few splatters of water that had made it through landed on them. 'Well...That was polite. We've only been here five minutes and already the locals are trying to kill us.' Carlos shrugged as they left the door and began to explore the greenery around them. 'How are there trees down here?' Sheva asked.  
'Well, it's the bottom of the ocean, the air has to come from somewhere.' Carlos replied. Both of them kept moving cautiously, watching out for any signs that this place was about to flood. 'What about the other two?' Sheva wondered. 'I hope they're alright.' 


	2. Chapter 2: The little ones

Alex ducked into a shadowy alcove as there came the sound of footsteps. '...So tired...' A female voice yawned, he watched as she walked past dragging a metal pipe along the ground. 'Hello?' she wondered as Alex shivered from the cold. 'Darling, is that you?' she demanded before she found him as he broke from where he was hiding. 'Darling!' she emitted a loud laugh as he ran away from her. She appeared to have totally lost her senses. Alex ran ahead and found a dead body on the ground, some kind of whacky harpoon gun clutched in their hands. Scrabbling, he grabbed it and turned on his back, the woman raised her pipe and was about to strike before he pulled the trigger. The spear flew loose and struck the Splicer straight through the neck. With a gurgling choke she became stuck against the wall. Alex sighed loudly as he pulled a pack of spears from the body and swung it over his shoulder. Was everybody in the place like this?

Carlos and Sheva desperately moved through Arcadia, keeping on the lookout for any sign of leakage. They could hear people chatting beyond a few hedges. Suddenly it broke into a commotion. 'Saturnine! Run! Run!' People ran screaming. Carlos and Sheva watched as masked men and women ran in, hurling fireballs. 'This is our territory!' a man yelled before with the sound of bones crunching, they all vanished. Silence fell in Arcadia for a while. Soon the two survivors felt it was safe to emerge from the bushes. Big Mistake. 'You hear that?' Carlos wondered. They could hear the sound of a young girl drawing closer. 'Back in the bush.' Sheva hissed in his ear.  
'What?'  
'I don't like the feeling I'm getting.' Sheva shuddered. Both of them hid back in the bush as a girl in a filthy purple dress wandered over, her eyes a glowing golden colour. 'What the fuck is wrong with her?' Carlos whispered.  
'I don't want to find out.' Sheva replied in an equally low whisper, green eyes widened as she watched. She brushed a loose strand of her brown hair back as the girl stabbed her syringe-like device into a dead body and began drawing up blood. Oh my....Is she...Drinking blood? Sheva and Carlos could only watch from the bush as the Little Sister continued working on the body. She spluttered slightly while drinking before turning to something out of their sight. 'All done, Mr B!' she laughed. There came an answering groan and boot steps that shook the ground.

Alexander opened his eyes slowly, his head hurt terribly and there was a horrible pain in his left wrist. The last thing he remembered was crossing paths with a little girl and then a splitting headache. 'Huh?' He looked to his left, the source of the pain came from a large amount of debris that had landed on him, and a strange syringe full of a red chemica, the needle sticking into his wrist. He very gently tried to pull himself free of it. But the needle was in deep, it dragged the syringe along with his wrist, this also began to shift the debris that was lying on him. Uh-oh... he thought as a large chunk of wood slipped from the pile and began to apply pressure to the needle. Steady now, Alex...You can do this... he thought, feeling sweat build from nerves as he tried to remove the needle, his right arm was still asleep and wasn't replying to the signals his brain was sending it. He shifted slightly, hearing the sounds of footsteps getting closer. The pressure of borrowed time rushed his actions and Alex discovered that fate ( as well as this writer) can be very cruel. Alex let out a scream of pain as the wood slipped and injected the contents into his body. With a sudden burst of adrenaline, he pulled his entire body free and stumbled from the wreckage, his vision blurring, he tripped over an overturned Gatherer's Garden machine and hit the ground again, his breath steamed up as he felt the cold stone of the floor turn to solid ice. Alex lost his energy suddenly and hit the ground unconscious.

'What-the-fuck-was-that?' Carlos asked once the Little Sister and Rumbler left.  
'I don't know and frankly...I don't want to.' Sheva added as they decided to further explore Arcadia. 'Wait!' Carlos ordered, calling Sheva back as she started to explore. 'Remember what attacked us when we first got here? There could be more of them. Let's find weapons first.'  
'Sure.' Sheva nodded, seeing his logic.

'_Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?'  
'Urr?' _Alex looked up drearily. His vision was still very blurry, weakly he tried to push himself up with his arms, but he shook from the effort and collapsed again. He just wanted to sleep again. 'Please, get on your feet.' The voice asked. Alex looked around for the source of it, his radio had slipped from his pocket and was lying next to him, hissing and crackling with static. With the greatest effort it had ever cost the acrobat, he dragged himself to his feet and picked the radio up. He still felt lethargic and dreary, like he had too much to drink. 'Ahh…You are up at last.' The voice was female, dry and ancient; she spoke in a strong German accent. 'I know that this may all be a lot take in, but you must listen now, you are from the surface, yes? My name is Tenenbaum and I need your help.'  
'What do you want?' the acrobat wondered.

'Ha ha! Got myself a gun!' Carlos laughed as he checked the machine gun over. 'What about you Shevs?' he asked and turned around to see Sheva spinning two revolvers through her fingers before slinging them into holsters at her waist. 'I'll be fine.' She replied. 'And don't call me "Shevs"' she turned her back and started to lead the way. 'It makes me think of pancakes.'

Melissa Miller walked through the corridors, she searched for the acrobat, the waitress and the game hunter. The poor unlucky girl found the acrobat and both of them were relieved to see each other. 'Oh, it's you! The stewardess!' Alex gasped as he found her and lowered the spear gun. 'I nearly shot you.'  
'That's Ok. I'm glad you're still alive.' Melissa replied. Then there came a loud explosion from down the hall and a girl sobbing. Both of them ran on to find a Little Sister crying over the body of a wrecked Rumbler. An Alpha Series was stalking around, oblivious to the Little Sister's screams. It let out a bloodcurdling roar before smashing through a wall and moving on. Silence, bar the Little Sister. 'Alex?' Melissa wondered as Alex walked over to the girl, she looked up as his shadow fell over her and began to crawl away rapidly into a corner. 'Alex…?' but the acrobat was deaf to the unlucky woman's voice.  
'So these little girls are full of…' his voice drifted in and out of focus as he muttered to himself. 'Could get it…But then she'll die…Is it worth her life?' suddenly he made his choice and grabbed the girl, her screams echoed from the room and bounced along the corridors.

'Thank you!' the girl said as she looked up at Alex. Alex flexed his right hand; he just couldn't bring himself to kill the girl for that slug. He had let his soft insides win out over the hard shell and used the plasmid Tenenbaum had sent him to humanely kill the slug. Melissa helped her up into a vent and she vanished inside, on her way to Tenenbaum. 'Alex, I had no idea you could be so sympathetic.' Melissa smiled. Alex contorted his expression into a snarl. 'Don't talk to me about that. You know nothing about me.' He said in a deep growl before they moved on. He stopped as Melissa ran on to take an old, crumpled photo from his pocket. 'Bella…' he said as he looked at his long-dead sister. The sounds of that horrid night still haunted his dreams into adulthood.

A spider Splicer fell with a scream at Sheva's hands as a bullet thudded into his skull. She knocked the gun barrels open and quickly reloaded with anti-personal rounds before continuing to barrage approaching Splicers with them. The cause of the attack? 'Mr B will get you!' The little sister in Carlos' arms. 'Shh…Stop screaming.' Carlos said before his ear drums were damaged again by the little sister's shrill screams. 'Sheva! Hurry it up!' Carlos ordered as Sheva took several steps back, shooting as she went. 'You try doing this then!' she yelled back. 'Carlos!'  
'Screw it! Run!'

'Huh...' Alex muttered as he and Melissa explored the nearby apartments. He had just turned over a stack of papers and found something quite intriguing. 'Look at this, Melissa.' Alex said as he picked it up. 'What?' Melissa asked before she came over to Alex and smiled. 'Congratulations Alex.' she said as she took it off him. 'You found a watch.'  
'Look at it, you bimbo. It's digital. They didn't have digital watches back in the 1950's!'  
'So?'

SO! It means we're not the first outsiders here!' Alex finished before going over a sheaf of soggy papers again. 'Who could it belong to?' he muttered.

'There...You...Go...' Sheva groaned as she picked up the Little Sister and gently eased her into a vent. 'Personally, I don't think that was worth it.'  
'Guess you were right-' Carlos began before Sheva suddenly shoved a hand over his mouth and pulled him into an alcove. It wasn't a Splicer. It was something else. To their utter surprise a man in military gear walked past them, looking around with night vision goggles and a modern machine gun. 'Why is he here?' Sheva hissed. 


	3. Chapter 3: Other forces

'Where are you going?!' A lady Smith Splicer yelled as she ran after them. It was as they were running that Alex remembered his other plasmid. 'D-d-d-d-darling....' The Splicer stammered as Alex froze her in mid step. 'Smash her.' He ordered Melissa. Melissa picked the pipe the Splicer had been using off the floor and spun on her feet before smashing through her frozen form, sending bloody chunks of ice everywhere. 'Nice!' they both agreed simultaneously.

Sheva and Carlos silently followed the soldier as he moved swiftly through the halls of Rapture. They watched as he approached a thick steel door and placed a hand on the scanner next to it. The door slid open with a beep and they got a brief glimpse of the room beyond; clean and modern, filled with scientist and military, then the door was shut again. 'Back!' Sheva ordered and they slammed themselves around a corner as the security camera above the door caught sight of them for a second. 'Why are they here?' Carlos wondered.

'Let go of that poor girl; she's helpless!'Sheva blocked out the Splicer's voice as she ran, cradling the Little sister in her arms. The Rumbler behind her knocked the Leadhead aside with its free hand, she hit the wall full on and there came a sickening crunch as her neck snapped. 'Carlos!!' Sheva gulped as she continued to run in circles from the Rumbler. 'Do something!!'  
'Sure…' Carlos groaned as he shoved a Gatherer's Garden vending machine off the edge of a broken balcony and it landed right on top of the Rumbler, killing them. 'Shevs? You OK?' Carlos demanded as he leapt off the balcony. The Little Sister was on the ground, mourning the death of the Rumbler, Sheva was lying next to her. A syringe from the machine had struck her in her left shoulder, the force of the blow had injected the Plasmid. 'Sheva.' Carlos gasped as he pulled the needle out and felt her pulse, she was still alive. Just unconscious. 'Car…Los…' she muttered weakly as she opened her eyes.  
'Hey.' He replied gently.  
'Carlos…The girl.' Sheva nodded behind Carlos and he realised the Little Sister they had worked so hard to get was running away. 'Hey!' Carlos grabbed her and promptly turned her human again before getting her small cry of "Thank you!" and running off into a vent. Sheva stood up slowly and felt her sore shoulder, then she noticed something, she must've still been delirious! She was seeing things! It looked like her hand was on fire,

'Charles! Get the medicine! Get it now!' the Splicer demanded as she limped towards a health station. 'AAH!' She screamed as it spat out toxic gas in her face instead of a first-aid kit and made her wounds sting. With a loud squelch, her head exploded and covered the health station in blood. 'Nice shot, Melissa!' Alex cheered as Melissa lowered her rifle. 'I swear, this place is full of lunatics.'

Soon, that statement came true. 'AAH!' a spider Splicer screamed as he found Alex cradling a Little Sister. 'It's got two heads!'  
'Mel, can you help me deal with the bug, please?' he asked politely and Melissa opened fire. The Splicer continued to dodge Melissa's rounds, they instead hit blank ceiling. 'He's moving too fast!'  
'Fine!' Alex snarled before using the winter blast to freeze them in place. 'Now can you get a clear shot? Before he defrosts preferably.'  
'Sure.' Melissa replied before shattering him. 'Good, now can you deal with her? She's too much trouble for her own good.'

'Right.' Alex ignored the girl's protests as he placed a glowing hand against her head. 'There you go…' he said gently as she returned to normal. As she ran off, they both jumped as the radio crackled, they had totally forgotten about Tenenbaum. '_Even as my body decays away, it warms my heart still to know that there are those who put the safety of others ahead of their own….For putting both your lives at risk to save the little ones, I am sending you a gift, to help you on your way. Please, be careful. There are other forces at work here besides us…'  
'_She's sending us…A present?' Alex asked, distrust in his voice. Melissa shut her eyes as she remembered something, something old. Crawling though a dark space, pushing a teddy bear in front of her as she went. Groaning, she climbed out and pulled out the bear. She ran over to a Gatherer's Garden machine and put the bear down; she heard footsteps approaching and looked up at the behemoth that towered over her. 'Daddy!' she said with a smile.

'Mel? You okay?' Alex asked as Melissa opened her eyes and shook her head.  
'It's nothing.' She assured him before feeling something brush past her. A human little sister had just run past and was climbing back into a vent. Melissa turned around and, as she expected, there was a Gatherer's Garden, a teddy bear was hugging a small present; wrapped in green with red ribbon. 'Huh, feels like Christmas.' Alex smiled as he picked up the present and gave it to Melissa. 'Ladies first.'  
'Such a gentlemen.' Melissa smirked before opening it. Inside were a large number of first-aid kits, an Armoured Shell tonic and a Hypnotise Big Daddy plasmid. 'Here.' Melissa gave him the gene tonic. 'You throw yourself in the firing line more often than me.'

'The fire! FIRE!!!' A splicer screamed as Sheva set her on fire. She began to run towards water, as she dived in, her body exploded with pain as a few thousand volts of electricity shot through her and she became a sizzling corpse in the pool. 'Nice work, Carlos.' Sheva said as Carlos walked back over to them, sparks of blue electricity jumping between his fingers. 'Shh!' they both backed into a corner as another military trooper walked past, searching the rooms as he went. 'Why are the military here?!' Sheva asked again. They still didn't have an answer.

'Look at this.' Melissa crouched down and picked up an Acuvox recorder. 'What could this be?' she asked before pushing the play button. "_This city hasn't been in any state of order for a long, long time…" _ A woman's voice echoed from the recorder, she spoke with a strong North American accent and her voice was soft, yet unnerving to listen to. "_We got commissioned by some of the Government types to explore this place. Go in and salvage what was left...If indeed there is anything left here. The locals all seem to be totally nuts, all hooked on some kind of drug…We need to see what's got them so riled up."_  
'Okay…So we're not the first people here.' Melissa said as she folded her arms.  
'The Government? I can see why they would want this stuff.' Alex said as he clenched a fist and watched as icicles burst through the back of his hand. He admired it near a light as he spoke. 'Yeah, some kind of drug alright, we're just not nuts enough to overdose on it.'  
'Yeah…Guess so…' Melissa muttered before stopping. She could hear another Little Sister in the distance. God, how many where there?! As she chased after it, Alex stared at the audio log before looking up. 'Mel! Hold up-!' he was knocked to the ground by the butt of a gun, the world span and blurred as he looked up at a trooper. 'Looks like we've got a live one.' He said as Alex passed out. 'Bringing him back to Home.' He spoke into a radio before grabbing Alex and swinging him over a shoulder. 


	4. Chapter 4: Meltzer's choice

"_Interesting stuff this…ADAM…"_ Carlos and Sheva listened curiously to the audio log. '_The locals down here are all hooked on it, like it's their lifeblood. We found blueprints and designs scattered around, we took them back to our base we have here. There is a way to collect it, but…Well…We need children. Girls…And then we need subjects willing to protect the girls…Although."_ Her voice changed abruptly and became darker. '_Maybe they shouldn't be so willing after all…' _Intrigued by thisnew information, they loaded the next log. _"The program is starting to work…But we need more. The "Little Sisters" can only gather a certain amount of ADAM at a time_. _We need more Little Sisters. The damn Splicers are clawing at the walls of this base; they can smell the ADAM vats we have in here. They can smell it, but they can't get in._ _There are also many other technological wonders that are lying around this place, we've dispatched troopers to hunt them down and bring them back. Slowly , but surely, we're salvaging this place. Then bring it back to the surface.'_ They paused. 'All that ADAM…_I wonder what these "Plasmids" are that I keep hearing about? Maybe it's time for more tests…"  
_Sheva and Carlos kept moving slowly, that was until they nearly collided into Melissa. Running from a Rumbler, with a little sister in her arms, screaming. 'Help! Help! Help!' she demanded.  
'Ready, Shevs?' Carlos asked  
'Lock and load.' Sheva replied as she loaded armour piercing rounds. After the Rumbler finally died, Sheva looted the body, Carlos scrounged around for more audio logs and Melissa sent the human little sister to Tenenbaum. 'Found one!' Carlos said as he picked it up.  
"_The little ones I have saved have already left me…Eleanor Lamb's little ones have also left her. Many years pass. Then…Girls start to vanish once more. So, I return to Rapture, in fear of what I already know. Americans are continuing my sins…Using the little ones to gather all the ADAM in the city. What they plan to do with it…I do not know."_ Tenenbaum's voice crackled on the log. "_I am getting too old to save many little ones…Soon I know that I will be granted eternal peace. But there must be…some way to save the others. I cannot let them die here."  
_'Poor her.' Sheva replied as she heard the log finish. Suddenly they were cut off by an ear splitting, screeching shriek. 'What was that?' Carlos wondered. The shriek came again and Carlos covered his ears. Melissa knew too well what that sound was. 'Here comes the Big Sister…' she gulped.

'Burn, you bitch!!!' Sheva screamed as she threw fireball after fireball. Suddenly Carlos was telekinetically pulled off his feet and dragged towards the Big Sister's razor sharp needle. 'NO!' Melissa yelled and tackled her, dragging them both to the ground. They immediately began wrestling madly. Until with a triumphant yell, Melissa pulled the gathering needle off and rammed it through the glass of the sister's helmet. The Big Sister let out a dying shriek as blood pooled out of the hole. 'Bitch!' Melissa snarled as she stood up, flicked her hair back and kicked the corpse in the head. 'Mel, you need anger management.' Carlos said as Melissa pulled the needle on her arm and shrugged. 'What can I say? I don't want to see you get hurt, you're still my passengers.' She said before stabbing the needle into the Big Sister and sucking out what ADAM was in her. _"The Big Sisters…"_ Tenenbaum began on the radio "_They are what happens when a little one grows up with that parasite still with them. They cannot gather ADAM, but they become aggressive and violent, yes.' _  
'Really?' Carlos asked as he rubbed his pounding head. 'I thought they were what happened when a shop ran out of shoes. All that screaming…Like a permanent PMS.' Suddenly he stopped and looked around. 'Where's Alex?'

Alex's world shifted in and out of focus, bright lights shone down on him. His body was either tied down or wouldn't respond. He focused, drearily, on a woman's face as it came into view. Dressed in a white lab coat, her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail. 'What's going on?' he wondered weakly.  
'Shh…' the scientist whispered. 'it's going to be alright. I promise you, this won't hurt.'  
'Wha-? What won't?' Alex asked, but she continued, ignoring him.  
'…And if it does…You won't remember it.'  
'You're going to wipe my memories…?' Alex asked, slightly shocked. She nodded. Immediately Alex tried a ruse. 'Please, don't do this…I have a family…I just want to go home…See my family…Play with my dog.' The woman stopped as she picked up a syringe. She looked at it for a second before putting it back down and walking over to him. 'I…I know.' She said as she ran a hand down the side of his head. Alex flexed a hand and she gently held it. The moment she did, Alex dug his nails in and the scientist began screaming in pain and shock as her hand and the shackle holding his arm down, froze over. Immediately she tried to pull away, but Alex held fast. The ice had started to cover her arm before she finally broke away and watched her arm defrost; she was suffering from serious frostbite. Meanwhile, Alex smashed the frozen, fragile shackle did the same to the other. As he slid off the operating table, his legs collapsed out from under him and he hit the ground, he started to drag himself forwards, hearing the scientist sobbing quietly from pain in the corner. He used a small cabinet to pull himself to his feet and willed himself to walk towards the door. Slowly, he was getting away. Then the alarm went off. Using her good hand, the scientist had hit the alarm and caused ten people in scrub attire to run in and restrain him. Alex fought desperately; he knocked out two of them, froze and shattered one. Then he felt the sharp prick of a needle, he tried to fight the sedative, but he slowly collapsed under their combined force.

'Alex!' a voice stirred him from his rest. 'Alex, please wake up…'  
'Bella?' he wondered as he looked up. His younger sister was standing over him, dark black hair loose around her; blue eyes were wide and kind. But that was impossible, Bella was gone…Ever since the…But she was here, standing before him. Alex dragged himself onto his knees and smiled at her. 'You're awake!' she smiled cheerily.  
'Bella…But, I thought you died…In the fire?' Alex asked. 'The one that destroyed our old home?' Suddenly he walked over to her and hugged her. 'I'm sorry…I'm so sorry.' He said. 'If only I could've been there.'  
'But, Alex, you have to wake up.' Bella continued.  
'Pardon?'  
'Wake up.' She seemed to have suddenly developed a German accent. Then the dream world melted away. Reality came back with a crash and small footsteps. "_Ahh…At last, you are awake."_ Tenenbaum crackled from the radio on the desk next to where he lay. His limbs felt strangely heavy. He guessed that he was tied down again. Beyond Tenenbaum's ancient voice, he could hear the scientist whispering to another person. '…Didn't expect him to use winter blast…Shouldn't have any more problems though…Old blueprints these…Think we've fixed the faults in it….Give the conditioning time to take effect.'  
_"I am grateful for you and your friends helping to save many of the little ones, more are returning to me by the hour, all saying their thanks to you and your friends, yes. But there are still many, many other little ones left shackled to their ADAM slugs. You cannot help your friends at the moment, but…"_ Alex focused as the sound of footsteps came closer. He suddenly felt small hands brush past him as a human little sister climbed onto the table and smiled at him. "_This little one has brought you something, to help free you from your mental shackles"_ What Tenenbaum had just said trickled through Alex's mind, but didn't really lodge anywhere meaningful. 'Shh!' the little sister giggled before stabbing the needle into him and injecting some kind of plasmid or tonic. Her job done, she slid off the table and scrabbled back into a vent as Alex blacked out again.

Carlos emitted a sigh as he checked his watch. 'Five Am.' He muttered. 'Nearly sunrise.' He turned to look at the others, who were rifling through a large stack of presents Tenenbaum had sent them. Melissa had exclaimed that it was "Like having Christmas come early" 'Feels strange that we won't see it, doesn't it?' he asked and Sheva nodded as she stuffed a large wad of dollars into her already overflowing purse. The women didn't really seem to be paying attention.

'Nice view.' Sheva muttered later as they looked out at the cityscape through a window.  
'Yeah.' Melissa replied. 'When you think this place could really have been something good.'  
'Good, but eventually everything turns sour. Bit like my father really.' Sheva spat. 'What a drug addict he was.'  
'Father…' Melissa muttered as she looked back at the body of a Rumbler. Little flitters of memories kept trickling back, memories she didn't want to remember. 'You okay?' Sheva asked.  
'Yeah…Fine.' Melissa replied before looking hopefully at Sheva. 'Have you ever wanted to forget so much, so many horrible things, that you'd change anything about you to forget?' she wondered as she looked at her reflection, blonde hair was filthy and soaked, plastered all over her face. 'Not really, no. Why?' the other woman asked.  
'I felt I needed to forget about-….Some things. Things to do with my father. So that's why I became Melissa Miller. I thought that if I could escape my old name, I could escape who I used to be.'  
'And…Who were you before?' Sheva wondered. Melissa listened; she could hear the patter of leaking water in the distance. 'My name used to be Cindy Meltzer.' She added with the greatest effort it had ever cost her.

'My father would've loved to see me like this, all grown up.' Melissa continued to Sheva as the two women looked out, watching a Rosie wander around outside. 'What happened to your father?' Sheva asked.  
'When I was younger…I was…kidnapped, I was brought here.' She glanced at the waitress. 'I was made into a Little Sister.' Sheva's eyes were wide.  
'Really? Who saved you?'  
'My…My father had to die so that I could be free.' Melissa stammered as she remembered it. The two Big Daddy's fighting, one of them falling. The other approached her, the mental conditioning and Eleanor's influence made her want to be adopted by the surviving behemoth. Melissa remembered gathering bodies, then being taken to a "Hidey-Hole". Crawling through darkness and emerging to be with other little girls, the room was warm and had bed, food and toys. 'The person who killed my father was the one who set me free.' Melissa finished.  
Sheva nodded, Melissa could see tears in her eyes. 'That's so sad…'  
Suddenly Melissa held up a hand. 'Shh!' she ordered to Carlos as he wandered over.  
'_Let's go find an angel Mr. B!'_ A Little Sister was getting close.  
'How many are there?' Carlos wondered in a whisper. 

_**AN: Yes, Melissa is Cindy Meltzer. As you've probably guessed by now, I'm what Bioshock wiki calls a "Pro-Rescuer" I have never harvested a little sis. **_


End file.
